Southampton boss expects Liverpool target to feature in Championship opener

Southampton’s Russell Martin confirms Romeo Lavia will feature in the squad for the Championship opener despite Liverpool links

Southampton manager Russell Martin expects transfer-linked midfielder Romeo Lavia to be in the squad for their Championship opener amidst Liverpool links.

Saints have so far rejected two of the bids from the Reds from the Belgian international. The initial bid was worth £37m while the improved second bid touched the £41m mark.

Belgian correspondent Sacha Tavolieri revealed that Liverpool will make a final bid soon to meet the minimum demands of the Championship side.

The slight positive is that Southampton’s opening game of the season is on Friday night against Sheffield Wednesday. So, even if Lavia plays a few minutes in that, there is a whole weekend available for the Reds to try and close out the deal with the player available to move without distracting his current teammates.

Let’s hope that is the case and this is what the club are planning to do. Time is running away and our season starts in less than 10 days.

As of now, Jurgen Klopp does not have a first-team defensive midfielder in the squad. For that reason, he had to be creative and try Curtis Jones

there against Bayern Munich in the final pre-season game in Singapore. Safe to say, the 22-year-old did not look comfortable there and the German champions played through our midfield like a knife through melted butter.

Although it is unlikely that any player arriving between now and before next Sunday will play the opener against Chelsea, it would be important to get him in and at least keep him in the playing squad.

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If the Lavia deal drags on and Liverpool do not have an alternative, it would feel as if they are going more undercooked at the start of this season compared to even 12 months ago. And we know how bad the last season was.